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SAFETY
IN
THE- GRAVE;
tDISG. ?y;
Old, and
to
fetch
out
the glories
and treasures
which
are
concealed
there?
Let
us dwell
á
while
upon each
of
these,
and endea-
vour
to
improve them
by
a
particular
application.
Observation L
"'
This
world
is
a
place
wherein
good
men are exposed
to great. calamities,
.
and
they
are ready
to
think the anger
or wrath
of God appears
in
them."
This
mortal
life,
and
this
present state of
things,
as
sur-
rounded
with crosses
and disappointments;
the
loss
of
our
dearest
friends,
as well
as our
own
pains and
sicknesses,
have
,so
much
anguish.and.
misery-,
attending
them,
that
they
seem to be
the seasons
of
divine wrath,
and
they
grieve and pain the
spirit
of
many a pious
man,
under
a
'sense
of
the anger
of
his
God.
It
must
be
confessed
'in
general
that
misery
is
the
effect
of
sin,
for
sin
and sor-
row
came
into the world together.
It
is
granted
also,
that
God
sometimes
afflicts his
people in anger, and cor-
rects
them
in his
hot displeasure,
when they have sinned
against
him in
a remarkable manner
:
but
this
is
not al-
ways
the
case.
The great
God
was
not
really angry
with
Job
when he
suffered
him
to
fall into`
such complicated distresses;
for
it
is
plain,
that
while he
delivered
him
up
into the hands
of
Satan to be
afflicted, he
vindicates and
honours
him
with
a
divine testimony
concerning
his
.
piety
:
Job
i.
8.
"
There
is
none like him
in
the earth,
a
perfect
and
an
upright
man, one
that
feareth God and
avoideth
evil."
Nor
was
he
angry
with
his Son
Jesus
Christ,
when
"
it
pleased the
Father
to bruise
him
and
put
hirn
to
grief,
when
he
made
his
soul
sn
offering
for
sin,
and
he
was
stricken, smitten
of 'God and
afflicted
;"
Is.
liii.
4.
-10.
To
these
we
may
add
Paul
the best of the
apos-
tles,
and
the
greatest
of
christians,
who
was
abun-
dant
in
labours and
sufferings
above all the
rest.
See
a
dismal
catalogue Of
his
calamities."
2
Cor.
xi.
23
-27.
What
variety
of
wretchedness, what
terrible
persecutions
from
men,
what repeated
strokes
of
distress
carne
upon
him by
the
providence ofGod,
which
appeared
like the
effects
Of
divine
wrath dr
armerì But
they were
plainly designed for more
divine.
and
blessed purposes,
both with
regard
to
God,
with
regard
to
himself,
and
to
all
the succeeding
ages
of
the christian
church.
God
does
not
always
smite his
own
people
to punish